The audacity of a president hell-bent on destroying our great nation has truly been a stunning spectacle to observe. No lie is too ridiculous to tell about anyone who opposes him. With a compliant media behind him, the smears this Demagogue-in-Chief promises to unleash on his opponent this fall could divide the county so badly that it becomes ungovernable.

The societal tensions Obama promised to ease have worsened by his politics of envy. The racial healing he promised has been made worse. Despite overwhelming opposition, he forced a health plan on the people that few want. He has trampled on the Constitution, and infringed on powers granted to Congress. He has bailed out auto companies, investment bankers and insurance companies. He has given Constitutional rights to terrorists.

Obama’s greatest transgression, however, has been the explosion of government spending to the point where we are enslaved to a mountain of debt that can never be repaid. He has given us $1.6-trillion deficits, and will have added more than $6 trillion to the debt by the end of his term. He has risen the percentage of GDP consumed by government to 25 percent. And all his spending has stimulated nothing.

If you believe what the government reports, total unemployment is currently 15.2 percent as measured by U-6. During Obama’s tenure, true unemployment has been running greater than 20 percent and is near Depression Era levels. In sum, Obama’s presidency has hastened a financial disaster upon the nation.

Obama calls his policies “transformation.” In an earlier age, they would have been considered something akin to treason. Our enemies could not have planted someone to have caused more damage. And now, with financial collapse on the horizon, our very way of life is threatened.

Altogether, Barack Obama will probably go down in history as the worst president of all time. Until now, historians have long given that dubious distinction to James Buchanan, who left office to Abraham Lincoln as the nation was falling apart and headed toward civil war. It is no exaggeration to say the 2012 election is every bit as important as was the 1860 election. James Buchanan at least had good intentions. The same cannot be said for Barack Obama. His intent is not to build up, but only to tear the nation down, and then to cover his tracks. There is no other way to explain his actions.

Millions of Americans, however, have finally had enough. A counterrevolution is rising to a level rarely seen in our history. There hasn’t been this intensity of grassroots activity since the abolitionist movement of the 1850s. People are making themselves visible in the community. They are organizing rallies and call-in campaigns. They are studying the Constitution, and will not be silenced by charges of racism or any other falsehood uttered by the Left.

And when the new president is sworn in, collective relief will be felt across the land. But the long and hard road to recovery will have only begun. WhetherAmericaavoids financial collapse will be uncertain for years to come.

For a government that borrows 36 cents of every dollar it spends, the math is simple. We will need real cuts to the federal budget near 36 percent to survive. Factor in modest economic growth and perhaps the cuts could be 30 percent. But failure to make real cuts on this scale risks runaway inflation and disaster. Any way you look at it, people’s pain will be deep, and it will be real.

With Obama gone and the threat of reprisals removed, people will begin to talk, and eventually the truth about Obama’s mysterious past will come out. What was hidden, scrubbed, and not vetted in 2008 — including his grades, his college records, his passport, his personal associations, and yes, even his birth — will all be exposed. It is all just a matter of time. The duplicity and deceit to be uncovered will shock even his most ardent supporters.

Who knows? A pariah status could very well attach itself to Obama on a level reserved for few individuals in American history. Obama could be regarded as the Benedict Arnold of our time. The masses may come to shun him, and rightly so. If there is poetic justice in this world, this will be his legacy.

November is not just another election; it is a seminal moment in American history. If Obama is reelected, expect ObamaCare to stay, the debt to crush us, our defenses to be laid bare,Iranto get the bomb, and at least two liberals to be named to the Supreme Court. If Obama is reelected,Americaas we know it will be gone forever. Collapse will be certain.

For true hope and true change, perhaps we should try returning to a limited Constitutional government. We all need to be involved. Whether or not we can turn around the disaster Barack Obama has foisted upon us hinges first on removing him from office. Now is the time to go about the work of doing just that. This is the year, folks. Buckle up. It’s going to be a rough ride.

And, as amazing as it is, no one went to jail. Why? Well, perhaps it is because in 2007 the perpetrators had some laws changed to their liking. And perhaps it is because these people are politically connected to the Obama Administration and Congressional liberals. Our government is protecting them, and there needs to be a public investigation into this matter.

The hedge fund short sellers who were at the root of the mayhem are found primarily at the Managed Funds Association (MFA), the so-called “voice of global alternative investment community.” MFA members include George Soros, John Paulson, Jim Chanos, James Harris Simons, and others.

When Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, MFA lobbyists soon began pressuring Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox to remove safeguard regulations that provided the conditions for stable markets. Such regulations had been in place since 1938. Cox eventually yielded to their requests to repeal the uptick rule, circuit breakers, and trading curbs. The Federal Accounting Standards Board also instituted mark-to-market accounting. Short ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) were introduced that year as well. Collectively, these changes fomented the resulting financial disaster.

The next year was a tumultuous one for investors. Early in 2008, the stock market was trending lower as news of the subprime mortgage crisis began to unfold. In July, oil prices spiked to $147 per barrel sending ripples through the economy. One of those ripples was to hit Lehman Brothers. The double whammy of subprime mortgages and soaring oil prices put them under.

On Monday, Sept 15, Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while other lending institutions lined up like dominoes teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. On Thursday of that week, a $550 billion electronic run on banks occurred within an hour or two, going mostly to offshore accounts. Instantly, there became a liquidity crisis within the banking industry. In an unprecedented move, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve had to act together to stop what had become a full-fledged panic. No one has ever investigated who withdrew the money or to where it went.

Up to that week, John McCain was ahead of Barack Obama in some polls by about 3 percent. By Oct. 10, the S&P 500 Index had lost 25 percent of its value from what it had been a month before and the McCain campaign was doomed. Hedge fund short sellers effectively handed the election to Barack Obama.

Declining markets occur all the time. Hypothetically speaking, it would be an outrage to the American people if someone were to induce a market panic in the midst of a presidential campaign. Could this be what happened in 2008? We may never know. The evidence is admittedly lacking, and is at best circumstantial. This could possibly be the perfect crime of all time. The question we need to ask ourselves now is whether we are exposed for this to happen in 2012?

Among MFA members, George Soros is the most well known. He has made his fortune by short selling and then pouring his private wealth into shadow organizations to subvert various nations. Hastening a market meltdown to give the election to Barack Obama would fit with his pattern of profiting while destroying the social order of his target country. His financing of the Democrat Party and hundreds of 527 organizations collectively has become a “Shadow Party” unto themselves. While profit and control motivate most hedge fund executives, Soros also has an ulterior motive to hasten a New World Order.

Another Soros associate is John Paulson. Paulson has contributed financially to both major political parties. He too has made billions by shorting collateralized mortgage debt securities, and then waiting for the financial institutions to collapse a few months later.

In his book, Wizards of Wall Street, Jubi Diamond detailed how the hedge fund short sellers operate in private. According to Diamond, the hedge fund short sellers are predators who feast on companies and economic sectors that can be pummeled “by market manipulations through collusion and unrestricted short selling.” Hedge fund traders, Diamond notes, can drive prices down and then drive them back up, all within a 15-minute period. Unlike mutual funds, this is an unregulated industry with many traders located offshore, outside the jurisdiction of the United States.

In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law, which did little about regulating the hedge fund short sellers.

Diamond explains:

The only financial reform needed today is to regulate and monitor the hedge funds and the hedge fund short sellers, some of them which are registered off-shore to avoid scrutiny. These global operators, with investors who remain mostly anonymous, must be compelled to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), publicly disclose their positions in the markets, and maintain accounting and trading records for a period of 10 years so their activities can be monitored and scrutinized. Just like mutual funds, they must be prohibited from engaging in day trading activities.

Much of the financial damage happened because of the mark-to-market rule, and because there was no uptick rule, no circuit breakers, and no trading curbs. They changed these regulations in 2007, meaning that the risk of investing has been borne by common investors “as the hedge fund short sellers operate with impunity looting the invested capital of American families.”

On March 9, 2009, the mark-to-market accounting rule was reversed, and (perhaps not so coincidentally) the S&P 500 Index happened to hit a low that same day, and more than doubled over the next two years.

The MFA’s short selling in 2008 was mostly legal because few laws were in place to stop them. And in the high-speed world of electronic trading, little evidence exists to convict them. The ways of hedge fund traders will not change until there is a public investigation, and we return regulations at least to what they were in 2006.

Perhaps we should consider the recent market volatility as the start of the 2012 campaign. Expect a wild ride as we count down to the election.

In a recent speech to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, “A smaller military, no matter how superb, will be able to go fewer places and do fewer things.” Ever the public servant, Gates seeks to kindle a debate the country seems reluctant, but needs, to have. It would be an invitation to disaster if we kept the same mission with reduced funding, or a reduced force. By bringing the issue to the public forum, Gates apparently seeks to avoid that calamity.

The core Pentagon budget is now about $530 billion, and accounts for roughly 20 percent of federal spending, and roughly half of discretionary spending. Defense cuts are coming, that much we know for sure, and the easiest of them have already been made. Gates acknowledged that over the past two years, “more than 30 programs (weapon systems, etc.) were canceled, capped, or ended that, if pursued to completion, would have cost more than $300 billion.”

After a comprehensive review, the Pentagon hopes to find additional savings. Whatever those might be, however, they will not be enough to meet their goal of saving $400 billion over 10 years. The pressure on the Pentagon’s budget is part of the GOP’s larger effort to cut the overall budget deficit by $4 trillion over the same time period. To meet that goal, the Pentagon is already suggesting that military missions and troop levels be reduced.

For a historical perspective, our defense budget hit a postwar high of 14.2% of GDP in 1953 during the Korean War. At the height of Vietnam in 1968, it was 9.5%, and it was 6.8% in 1986 at the height of the Reagan buildup. In 2000, military funding reached the lowest point on 3.0%. Today, 10 years into the Global War on Terror, we are spending 4.7% of GDP on defense.

In the 1980s, the Army had 18 combat divisions. Today they have ten. Many of the Army’s weapons have already missed several rounds of modernization. Many of its soldiers are on their fourth or fifth tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. And the Army Reserves have been on repeated deployments overseas since 9/11 as well.

The Navy has been reduced from 600 ships in the 1980s to fewer than 300 today. They now have fewer ships than at any time since the First World War. In that same time, the number of tactical air wings in the Air Force has fallen from 37 to 20. And their planes are the smallest in number and the oldest in age, ever. The useful life of the tanks, artillery, planes, ships, and missiles that date to the Reagan buildup is ending, and the cost of replacing them is now far greater than it was back then.

Going forward, the challenge for Washington is to reach a political consensus that transitions our military capability and alliances, and meets the realities of the decades ahead. As a nation, perhaps the first question we must ask ourselves is what is so critical to our security that we are willing to go to war to defend it? Upon the answer to that question lie answers to how much military strength we need, and at what amount of funding will be needed to achieve it.

Once the Afghan War is over, we would hope to see U.S. troop levels reduced in the Middle East. In Korea, the South has twice the people, and many times the economy of the North. Moreover, Pyongyang has no Soviet Union or Maoist China backing them as in the past. We may also have an opportunity to reduce our commitment there.

And what is the necessity for a U.S. troop presence in Europe? The Red Army withdrew from Germany and the rest of Central Europe long ago. Our European allies are as wealthy as we are. And while they would rather push their defense responsibilities off on us, perhaps it is time for us to step back from there too. Should we really have U.S. troops stationed in places like Kosovo? Maybe we should let the Europeans handle these places on their own.

Our military footprint is shrinking because we are broke, and we must make hard choices about what is important to our nation’s security. Some have said we should not partake in any more wars where we must endlessly explain our reasons for being there to the American people. In this time of austerity, perhaps that is right approach.

The old axiom that peace comes through strength has not changed. When a crisis comes, we could be forced to pay in blood and treasure many times over what we save today in downsizing our military. Clearly, we must be smart about downsizing our military and optimizing its strength while undergoing this process. Our decisions today will be consequential to when that day of crisis inevitably comes.

In his AEI speech, Gates said:

“I am determined that we not repeat the mistakes of the past, where the budget targets were met mostly by taking a percentage off the top of everything, the simplest and most politically expedient approach both inside the Pentagon and outside of it. That kind of “salami-slicing” approach preserves overhead and maintains force structure on paper, but results in a hollowing-out of the force from a lack of proper training, maintenance and equipment – and manpower. That’s what happened in the 1970s – a disastrous period for our military – and to a lesser extent during the late 1990s.”

The biggest items in the federal budget are Social Security, Medicare, and Defense. It is unlikely we will reach any long-term bipartisan budget deal without cuts to all three. So Defense cuts are coming, and the 2012 campaign season is as good a time as any to air this issue publicly. As Gates said, “Part of this analysis will entail going places that have been avoided by politicians in the past.”

The President, the Congress, and the American people should openly decide which commitments and capabilities America should maintain, reduce, or abandon. It is a debate we need to have. Typically, most pols would kick this thorny issue down the road. In one of his final acts as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates has brought this vital issue to the forefront of the public attention. His service to the nation is commendable. Let the debate begin.

Jeff Lukens is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. He can be contacted at www.jefflukens.com

Three websites will give you the basics on the forensic details of the document. Check them out here, here and here. The evidence is so overwhelming that the Birth Certificate is a fake, it is as if he is toying with us. Obama seems to be daring anyone to verify the document and apply it to a Constitutional standard. It’s like, “Yeah, it’s fake. What are you going to do about it?” His intent is obviously to stir up infighting between his opponents and throw them off track.

Assuming the Birth Certificate was real, another issue regarding his constitutionality to be president that is often overlooked is the definition of a natural born citizen. Until 2008, the common understanding of a natural born citizen was that all persons born within the U.S., of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty, were natural born citizens. Obama’s father (being Kenyan and in 1961 being a subject of the British Crown) would by this definition exclude Obama as a natural born citizen. He would be classified a naturalized citizen.

If this case ever came in front of the Supreme Court, however, it is likely the court would disregard all previous definitions and rule that Obama is a natural born citizen. They would likely disregard any evidence of a fake Birth Certificate as well. Obama was sworn in as president two years ago, and they would not have the nerve to remove him from office after all this time.

More details about his Birth Certificate will surely come out over time. There are many things about his past, school records, a Connecticut Social Security Number, and passport records (to name a few) that are unexplained or hidden from public view. Most of his life before 2004 has been covered up. In time, probably after he leaves office, it will all come out. It always does.

There is no political advantage for Republicans to pursue the false Birth Certificate. That should have been done in 2008. To do so now, in fact, would be a disservice to their efforts to defeat him politically. Obama is just a figurehead for the Progressive movement, and the GOP will need to defeat him on the issues or their calls for a return to conservatism won’t really matter anyway. If Obama’s opponents try to impeach him or litigate this issue in court, Obama knows it will go nowhere. History and the court of public opinion will be the ultimate judge of President Barack Obama.

Jeff Lukens is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. He can be contacted at www.jefflukens.com

We know that the biggest threat to our way of life today is our growing debt. Yet progressives in government and in the media disrespect us. They label us extremists and racists when all we are calling for is a responsible government that controls its spending.

Federal spending is up 108 percent from what it was 10 years ago. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the deficit this fiscal year will be nearly $1.6 trillion, the largest in peacetime history. The government borrows 40 cents of every dollar they spend. As the deficit reaches 10 percent of our annual GDP, the debt is now equal to it.

By the submission of his budget, President Obama tacitly admits that he is not serious about addressing the problem. His budget will more than double the deficit in the next few years. And within five years, the debt will grow to $21 trillion. By then, interest payments on our debt will be nearly half of federal tax receipts, and inflation will run wild. This is a mathematical certainty unless great change comes to Washington very soon.

And with the stimulus money soon running out, the bailouts of state and local governments will end. Across the country, they have already started cutting police, firefighters, emergency medical, and teachers. The protests in Wisconsin are just the beginning. In Illinois, tens of thousands of people had been waiting for their checks for months until state officials finally punted by raising taxes and borrowing more money. Dozens of other states have similar horror stories.

We cannot believe half of what our government tells us, and nobody in the media even bothers to cover it. A decade ago, we were running surpluses. What few people knew was that Social Security withholdings gave the federal government its artificial surplus. But now, with our aging population, Social Security is already operating in the red and requires tax general revenue to meet its commitments. And then they tell us unemployment is 9.4 percent when the true number of people seeking work is closer to 20 percent. You see, it is all in how they define unemployment.

But their misleading statements are catching up with them. While the government reported inflation to be only 1.5 percent for 2010, the U.S. already has inflationary problems with food, energy, clothing, and other necessities. The CRB food index was up 36 percent over the past year, and raw materials were up 23 percent. The government can also define inflation in a non-threatening way, but it is already causing anxiety around the world and riots in the Middle East. It is sure to be higher in 2011 and beyond. Much higher.

With the dollar as the world’s Reserve Currency, the U.S. is the only country that pays for its imports in its own currency. As a result, our government can just print more money to pay for anything. So now we are seeing China, Japan, OPEC countries, and others are moving to end usage of the dollar in their transactions for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies. The dollar could lose its Reserve Currency status. When that happens, the price of gasoline and other imports here will skyrocket, inflation will soar, and the economy will tank. Just imagine what happens when China quits buying up our debt.

Saying that we are losing our prosperity is an understatement. We are at the edge of an abyss, and it is mostly a problem of our own making. The time to reduce spending is now. We must press lawmakers for every budgetary cut from wherever it can be found. Last week, they passed a bill to cut $61 billion. These cuts are only a beginning. There will need to be many more.

Unfortunately, we cannot fully reverse the tide of red ink without gaining control of the Senate and the White House in 2012. Assuming that happens, lawmakers will then be able to do what is necessary to balance the budget, including reform of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Of course, ObamaCare must be repealed. The Department of Education, Department of Energy, and even the Department of Commerce should all be severely cut back — or better yet — eliminated. We need lower corporate tax rates. We need a roll back in regulations. And we need a Balanced Budget Amendment.

The seriousness of this crisis, however, will not stop the Left from demagoging every cut in every way possible. We must be able to refute their exaggerations.

It is too easy for Washington to return to its old ways. Our task is to elect a governing body of conservatives to go against what is normal in Washington. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is a good example of an elected leader who has stood up well against the onslaught. We need many more like him in 2012.

There is no way to exaggerate the importance of the debt crisis. Now is the time for all constitutionally minded Americans to get busy, to plug into the tea party and other grass roots activist groups, and to carry the budget reform message forward. And we cannot let up. This is a crusade, and it will go on for years. The debit crisis is a defining issue of our generation.

Are we willing to do what it takes America to remain an exceptional nation? We do not have much time to answer that question. We must hold our elected officials accountable, and press them relentlessly for budget reform. We literally cannot afford to lose this battle.

Jeff Lukens is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. He can be contacted at www.jefflukens.com

Beijing has established, over the years, an integrated economy with surrounding Asian nations equal in size to that of the United States. They have the technological and financial advantages of a modern economy, and with their huge population, the cost advantages of a developing one.

But China has problems too. Part of their insecurity stems from a dependence on foreign sources for raw materials. China imports about half its oil, for example, and the vast majority of that comes from tankers that pass through the strategic chokepoint at Strait of Malacca near Singapore. And to reach Africa or the Persian Gulf, they must cross a vast Indian Ocean heavily patrolled by the U.S. and Indian warships.

And then there is the one-child policy adopted in the 1970s. The policy has resulted in an inherently unstable demographic of 125 men for every 100 women of childbearing age. Moreover, China is aging faster than almost any country on Earth. By 2030, about the time China’s economy is projected to surpass the U.S., their population will begin to decline.

A massive wealth disparity also exists between China’s coastal populations and its poorer interior regions. With the vast majority of China’s population living in the eastern-third of the country near the coast, the other two-thirds of the country is relatively unpopulated.

About 17 million people annually migrate from the country to the cities. Beijing is hoping to limit that flow by taxing and shifting resources away from wealthier coastal regions and giving it to the interior regions without meeting great resistance from either.

When economic growth inevitably slows, however, conflicts will arise and competing factions could emerge with some calling for a strong central government that imposes a heavy-handed order, and others calling for a more free decentralized government. How this struggle will play out is uncertain. In the end, China may remain formally united, but its power could be distributed among its regions much as it was before Mao.

China’s immediate problem, however, is inflation. A succession of wage increases has occurred this past year for factory workers. That, along with a rise in commodity prices, could bring a spiraling inflation where higher wages and prices feed off each other. The threat of inflation is forcing their central bank to begin cooling the economy. Beijing is already contemplating price controls for some consumer staples, and particularly for food items. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that China’s “consumer price index’s spike to 4.4% on-year in October was mostly due to a 10.1% on-year rise in food prices.”

By keeping the yuan artificially weak against other currencies, Beijing may have allowed its economy to overheat, and has contributed to trade imbalances and global recession. The fading value of the euro has compounded the problem. In preventing the yuan from fully appreciating, China has accumulated $2.6 trillion in foreign-currency reserves, mostly in dollar-denominated assets.

Although Beijing has recently decided to allow the yuan to strengthen, it has much further to go to reach fair value with the dollar. Ending trade and monetary imbalances, and the global recession, is unlikely unless the yuan is allowed to rise freely. Allowing the yuan to rise, however, would slow China’s economy still further. Such a policy would be mostly for the benefit of other nations, and is therefore very improbable.

History suggests that China will continue to act in its own best interest by maintaining trade advantages. This, in turn, allows them to keep their people employed, and to grow their economy and their military. They have little for error. With 1.3 billion mouths to feed, and food prices rising, no one knows when some chance incident might trigger another Tiananmen Square type bloodletting, a Chinese selloff in the U.S. Bond market, or a showdown over Taiwan.

We cannot assume Chinese and American interests are the same. For policy makers in Washington, China’s ravenous appetite for raw materials and our growing indebtedness to them are worrisome. We must be open to the possibility that our current approach is not working, and is strengthening a regime that represses its people and threatens other nations.

In a world of sovereign debt defaults, currency devaluations and quantitative easing, China’s goal is to protect its economy. In doing so, however, they could be destabilizing the world economy, and causing an aggressive competition for resources. We too will feel the economic effects of their actions. It is inescapable.

The United States must undoubtedly begin the difficult process of reducing its budget and foreign trade deficits. So far, few in Washington have shown a genuine will to address these issues. That must change. With China’s inherent instability, a wise and measured policy approach by Washington will be required for the good of both nations. No easy answers exist for either country.

Jeff Lukens is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. He can be through his website: www.jefflukens.com

Every great moment in this country, when real progress is made, there was a spiritual awakening. The Restoring Honor Rally in Washington D.C. on August 28 may be the one of those moments. The rally’s organizer is radio and television personality Glenn Beck. Beck says that our country’s troubles cannot be solved by the same methods that got us into this mess. Like an old time revivalist, he says “We must call upon God, and He will see us through.”

The message is resonating. As many as a million people could attend the rally. Beck and his audience generally agree that this is a country of divine providence, a country of American exceptionalism, and that God has a special purpose for this land. And like the Founders, we too can call upon divine providence to overcome our nation’s troubles.

The Founders were all people of great faith who saw America as a new promised land. The popular myth is that they were not religious is not true. They believed in divine providence, and that if they relied upon God, then God would set things right.

The Founders knew that besting the most powerful army in the world in battle did not happen by accident. Nor was it an accident that they came together with like mind to agree to a lasting foundation of governance in the U.S. Constitution.

There have been major periods of revival, or Great Awakenings, in American history. The first occurred in the quest for independence. The Declaration of Independence and other founding documents frequently refer to freedom and divine providence. The Founders saw the two concepts as interrelated. Another Great Awakening began in the early 1800s, and reached its climax with the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

Visiting America in the 1830s, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville was surprised by the religious atmosphere and noted that, “Freedom sees religion as the companion of its struggles and triumphs, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its rights.” Tocqueville’s observation was simply that, for America, tyranny may be able to do without faith, but liberty cannot. This point is as timely today as ever.

These days, faith in God as the Provider of all human rights is an alien concept to many of our fellow citizens. Many think their rights come from government. Our Constitution is ignored as something that is quaintly out of date and can be rhetorically contorted to fit any political purpose.

Could it be that only after a calamity of such unspeakable proportions that enough people will adjust their attitude toward faith and the founding principles that a renewal can take place? We may soon find out.

With the economy as bad as it is, imagine what happens when Baby Boomers begin retiring as the Social Security and Medicare systems simultaneously go broke. This looming financial crisis, among many others, threatens the everyday freedoms we take for granted.

Our government spends trillions it does not have. When hyperinflation turns our dollars into Monopoly money, the resulting civil disorder could be unimaginable. Savings accounts will be wiped out, commerce could break down, and within a short time there could be anarchy in the streets. In their shortsightedness, “compassionate” politicians will probably then step in with price controls to “protect the people against greedy businessmen.” The resulting shortages on the store shelves could then reduce the lives of many people into a desperate search for such basic items as food and water.

There are no easy answers to what lies ahead. Life as we know it could be dangling by a thread. People already sense trouble and are starting to pay attention. They are beginning to realize we don’t need a transformed nation, we need a restored nation. And that only happens by a transformation of individual attitudes and beliefs.

Perhaps we should heed the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Beck, who is Mormon, is calling people across all religious denominations to participate in an American revival. Like the Founders, we can differ theologically and still agree in the common cause of liberty.

Beck prompts his audience daily: “We must begin by seeking God… The Hand of God will save this country… We must choose today how we are going to live… To be a free people implies we must be a responsible people… We must be involved… We lose freedom by not valuing it as a gift from God… If America perishes, where will the world run? Who stand against tyranny when we are gone? A new dark age will come.”

If the message of American renewal speaks to you, come join us at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, and be a part of “Restoring Honor” to our nation.

Jeff Lukens is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. He can be contacted at www.jefflukens.com

Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to power has been truly remarkable. He served a mere 143 days in the U.S. Senate prior to forming an exploratory committee for his presidential candidacy in 2007. He has risen from obscurity to celebrity status in a very short time.

With the multitude of mysteries that surround him, it is a wonder why there has not been the interest in investigating his personal history and nefarious connections at, say, a fraction of the interest of what followed John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

The decades of controversy that followed the JFK assassination amounted to nothing more than a misfit named Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone to kill the president. That’s it. There was nothing more to it. No grassy knoll snipers, no mob connection, no Castro connection, no KGB connection, no CIA connection, nothing.

In the end, the investigations into the conspiracies about the JFK assassination were much ado about nothing. The Warren Commission had it right from the beginning. With the multitude of conspiracies pertaining to Obama, however, it is more aptly described as nothing ado about much. Where is Oliver Stone when you need him?

Is Barack Obama some sort of 21st Century Manchurian Candidate writ large? What do we really know about him? Let us start at the beginning.

The Early Years

Barack Obama is alleged to be born in both Hawaii and Kenya. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was a student attending the University of Hawaii when she met Barack Obama, Sr., a foreign student from Kenya, in 1960. Obama’s mother and father were married on February 2, 1961. She would later learn that the father was already married, and they separated in 1963.

Barack Obama claims to be born on August 4, 1961 in Hawaii as a natural born citizen and is therefore eligible to be president. His grandmother, Sarah Obama, says she witnessed his birth in Kenya. Even if this is not true, his father was a British citizen making his son a dual, or “naturalized” citizen. The U.S. Constitution reads that a presidential candidate must be “a natural born,” not just a “naturalized” citizen. The Certificate of Live Birth Obama released appears to have been photoshopped, and nonetheless is not an official birth certificate.

In 1967, Anna married Lolo Soetoro, a Malaysian oilman, and moved from Hawaii to Indonesia. Young Obama was enrolled in preschool in Jakarta under the name “Barry Soetoro” and was registered as a citizen of Indonesia and his religion as Islam. Obama’s stepfather was a Muslim, and Indonesia law requires all children to be citizens (or renounce prior citizenship) to attend school. Obama’s mother Anna left him and he never saw her again after 1979.

From 1970 to 1979, Obama attended a private school in Hawaii. During these years, Obama was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis, his grandfather’s friend. Davis has even been rumored to be Obama’s father. Davis wrote for the Honolulu Record (a Communist newspaper) and was a member of the Communist Party USA.

In 1979, Obama was admitted to Occidental College in Los Angeles, most likely as a foreign exchange student. By this time, he was already moving down the path to becoming a socialist activist. At Occidental, he was a member of the radical socialist organization Students for Economic Democracy until he transferred to Columbia University in 1981.

There are many unanswered questions about the Obama’s early years. Diana West and John L. Work compiled a list of undisclosed documents on Obama’s background that we, as an open society, have a right to know about the man who currently occupies the White House.

1) The original, long-form 1961 Hawaiian birth certificate.
2) Marriage license between Obama’s father (Barack Sr.) and mother (Stanley Ann Dunham) — not found, not released
3) Obama’s baptism records — sealed
4) Obama’s adoption records — sealed
5) Records of Obama’s and his mother’s repatriation as US citizens on return from Indonesia — not found, not released
6) Name change (Barry Soetero to Barack Hussein Obama) records — not found, not released
7) Noelani Elementary School (Hawaii) — not released
Punahou School financial aid or school records — not released
9) Occidental College financial aid records — not released. (These records were, however, subpoenaed but Obama lawyers succeeded in quashing the subpoena in court. No other Occidental records have been released.)
10) Columbia College records — not released
11) Columbia senior thesis — not released
12) Harvard Law School records (not mentioned below, but not released)
13) Obama’s law client list — sealed
14) Obama’s files from career as an Illinois State Senator — sealed
15) Obama’s record with Illinois State Bar Association — sealed
16) Obama’s medical records — not released
17) Obama’s passport records — not released

And I will add two more . . .

18) Obama’s 1979 Selective Service Registration.
19) Obama’s true Social Security Number. He is alleged to have more than one.

The Road to the Presidency

In 1983, Obama moved to Chicago where he became Director of the Developing Communities Project where he honed his community organizing skills. In the mid-1980s, Obama was the attorney for ACORN and was a trainer at their annual conferences.

Obama first met William Ayres in 1988. Soon afterwards, Obama returns east to attend Harvard Law School. A wealthy Saudi prince is rumored to have funded his tuition. Obama then became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. For such an ordinary writer, this is amazing too. Other than an unremarkable article published in the Columbia student newspaper, we don’t find anything he has written up to this time, including in the Harvard Law Review.

Obama returned to Chicago to intern at a law firm in 1989 where he met Michelle Robinson. Following graduation, he and Michelle were married in 1992 by Rev. Jeremiah Wright at the Trinity United Church of Christ.

In 1995, Dreams from My Father was published. Jack Cashill has analyzed the writing style of the book and concluded that it is remarkably similar to other books written by William Ayers. Apparently, Ayres made the effort to ghostwrite the book in 1995 because he and his contacts already had Obama on the fast track to run for high office, and through him advance their radical agenda.

And where else would that be possible but in the machine politics of Chicago? Obama and Ayers served alongside each other on a $100 million education foundation called the “Chicago Annenberg Challenge” from 1995 to 2000. When Obama launched his political career in 1995, the setting for his first fundraiser was the Chicago apartment of Ayers. Obama was the winning candidate for the Illinois 13th District in 1996.

In 2004, Obama ran for and won the U.S. Senate seat for Illinois after his GOP opponent was exposed in a sex scandal. On February 10, 2007, the young Senator announced his presidential candidacy. Senator Obama voted the liberal line on 65 of 66 key votes and he was ranked as “the most liberal Senator of 2007” by the National Journal.

Obama lived by the Alinsky rule that said radicals should cut their hair and put on suits so as not to scare off the middle class. This approach served Obama well through the 2008 “Change We Can Believe In” campaign. And during that campaign, he took down the Clinton machine, which in itself was no small feat. A messianic quality soon surrounded Obama as a fawning media gushed over the spectacle of the first black man seriously contending for the presidency.

As a citizen of the world and a candidate for the presidency, Obama gave a landmark speech in Berlin where he promised to not leave “our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.” Even by Obama’s inflated rhetorical standards, this was over the top.

Six weeks before the election, the subprime mortgage crisis forced Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy, and the stock market subsequently lost 25% of its value over the next month. It has never been determined whether Obama’s backers, such as George Soros, were complicit in the market crash in 2008. But it all fits together so nicely by their profiting while short selling the market and panicking the public to the point that they would consider an unknown leftist Senator for the highest office in the land. The crash essentially handed the presidency to Barack Obama.

The Unfolding Truth

Imagine if it were ever proven that Obama is ineligible to be president. A Constitutional crisis would surely erupt. The validity of every law and Executive Order signed while Obama was acting as president could be invalidated.

Every day we witness another assault by Team Obama to alter our country and grow a culture of dependency. From coercing corporations into adopting progressive policies, to politicizing the census, to seeking to make millions of illegal aliens into voting citizens, to establishing an Internet Kill Switch, to abolishing talk radio, to Cap and Trade, to ObamaCare, the list goes on. The implications of these schemes are grave for freedom loving people everywhere. In Obama’s Alinksyite world, the end always justifies the means. It just comes with an alibi and a smile.

Obama’s runaway spending and anti-business policies could be to purposely driving the nation into bankruptcy. The U.S. economy is already staggering under a mountain of debt and unfunded liabilities. Could Obama’s end game be to sabotage the U.S. and world economies in order to collapse them and create the New World Order that progressives have long sought? We may soon find out. There is already talk of a single world currency as the value of the dollar erodes.

In summary, Barack Obama played down his radical past to appear moderate. Everything the man stands for and has ever done, however, is some deception or lie. He promised to transform our nation with a fresh start. In the time since we have known this man, however, it is clear that his only answer to anything is more government control. He will say or pretend anything to advance that goal.

The president and his socialist brethren are intent on undermining our allegiance to the U.S. Constitution. In 2008, the people were duped into voting for a con man for their president. Now, our very way of life is at risk and the time to correct this deception grows short. We need to expose the truth behind the Obama Administration and its backers before it is too late.

RELATED LINKS:
The Obama Timeline, by Don Fredrick.
Beyond Coincidence, By Lynn M. Stuter.

In a recent commentary, Sen. Jim DeMint reported:

“Four years ago, legislation to build 700-miles of double-layer border fence along the Southern border was supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama and signed into law by President Bush. Yet, only a fraction of that fencing is in place today.”

“According to staff at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), only 34.3 miles double-layer fencing has been completed along the Southern border.”

“The lack of double-layer fencing can be traced to a 2007 amendment that eliminated the double-fencing requirement and allowed the DHS the option to put other types of less effective fencing in its place. It was lumped into a massive, omnibus-spending bill that President Bush signed into law on December 26, 2007.”

Since President Obama took office, construction on the fence has halted. Apparently the solution then was to use a “virtual fence” by way of drones and sensors. DeMint goes on to say U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Chief Alan Bersin dashed any hopes left for the virtual fence when he called it a “complete failure” during a recent Senate hearing.

Almost everyone supports legal immigration where we gradually assimilate newcomers into the population. No previous group, however, has had such a large inflow or ease of access to their home country as Mexican immigrants have today. That’s because no previous wave of immigrants could walk right into the country. Earlier groups crossed oceans to come here and were assimilated into the culture in measured way.

The income gap between the U.S. and Mexico is the largest between any two neighboring countries in the world. The Mexican economy does not provide living wages for its growing population, and their solution is to export their poor to our country.

Most Americans clearly want the federal government to get tougher on illegal immigration. While politicians pander for cheap labor and cheap votes, we the taxpayers pick up the tab for their emergency room visits, education, and other social services. When we factor in the increased taxpayer expense and the fraying of the social fabric of our nation, cheap labor is not so cheap after all.

Moreover, today’s illegals do not conduct themselves like immigrants of the past. Certainly, many are hard workers. However, they are here against our laws and have little or no interest in learning English or the ways of our culture. Illegals generally come here to find a job, not necessarily to become citizens.

And now, they are protesting our generosity in the streets while Mexican President Felipe Calderon denounces Arizona’s enforcement of federal law to standing ovations in Congress. While Washington plays politics with border security, their inaction is leading to increased drug trafficking, human trafficking, and gang activity in the border states.

These brazen attitudes and behaviors are offensive to Americans, and are why we need the border controlled. This is not about racism. It is about an abuse of our laws and social norms that appalls every ethnic group, especially those waiting in line legally to become citizens.

So far, all efforts to secure the border have failed. Calling up National Guard troops is only a stopgap measure. The Guardsmen will eventually go home. Whatever funding provided this year for border protection may be cut next year, and then we could be right back where we started. We need something tangible. A fence is permanent, and we need to build it.

Other actions need to be taken to control illegal immigration such as a foolproof, biometric identity card to for employment, and stiff penalties against companies who hire undocumented workers. But those actions can wait. The main solution to our illegal immigration problem begins with controlling the border, and controlling the border starts with building a fence. Sen. DeMint’s efforts to finish the fence should be applauded.

Once a fence is in place and we restore order on the border, our ability to handle guest worker programs and related issues becomes possible. Only when the border is truly secure will Americans trust Washington to pass a comprehensive immigration system that works.

We have a proud history of accepting the world’s poor in a system designed to provide gradual assimilation of new citizens into our language and culture. We need to control our border and allow that process to happen properly.

Jeff Lukens is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. He can be contacted at www.jefflukens.com

Despite immense opposition, Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress forced through a health care bill, not to improve people’s health care but to expand the power of the state over them. It is the height of arrogance. As ObamaCare moves closer to reality, we know the resulting intrusion of government in our lives will not allow us to continue to live as we have before.
We know the government can’t keep running huge deficits and think there will be no consequences. We know the federal and many state budgets are already broke, and that hard times are coming. We know that Obama is deliberately trying to drive the country off a cliff with debt our grandchildren can never repay. And we know that when we speak out against this madness, they will malign us and likely smear us as racists.

Until recently, many have avoided speaking publicly about politics, and we now know that must change too. We could never live with ourselves if we sat by and did nothing while liberals dismantle the country. We need heroic action, and we know we are the ones who must be the heroes. Each of us need to reach deep and summon what may not come naturally, and bring out the hero that resides inside.

A hero is someone motivated to act beyond his or her own self-interest. It’s that person faced with an overwhelming challenge or moral dilemma who acts for the greater good. He or she acts in the interest of duty, honor, and country.

Think of the iconic hero Rick Blaine (played by Humphrey Bogart) in the movie “Casablanca.” In it, he is a world-weary American in a lawless town. As lost love and horrendous world events spiral beyond his control, he is faced with the uncomfortable necessity of standing up for good. At first Rick shrugs, “I’m not interested in the politics. The problems of the world are not in my department. I’m a saloon keeper.” His response is typical of many of us today.

Rick eventually comes to the realization that he can no longer run away from himself in drink and self-pity. He knows the only way to move forward is bravely to act on the side of good. His inner hero emerges. At great risk, and some sorrow, Rick puts the courageous underground Nazi resistance leader and his wife on the plane to Lisbon so they can continue their movement.
With the daily assault by progressives on our values, we know that all we hold dear about this county they oppose. Like Rick, we know we too must get off the bench and strive for what is right. And we know we must do it soon.

We know we must fight back now before ObamaCare takes effect, not years from now when the benefits become embedded. We know the massive expansion of the federal government into personal health care will drive health insurance providers out of business and force employers to dump their workers on to the government plan.

Obama thinks he can initially hide the negative effects, hooking us on new benefits until they become entrenched, and putting off the reduced care, the cost overruns, and the tax hikes that are sure to come so we will not make the connection between this horrible legislation and the resulting economic carnage. Like so much about this man, this deception is nefarious and dishonest.
But his plan may be backfiring. Suddenly, the steady encroachment of socialism these many decades is very noticeable by tens of millions of ordinary people who care deeply about their county, and they are taking to the streets.

We must start now at working to repeal this health care debacle and remove Obama and his cronies from office. And we must get out of our comfort zone and do what we may have never done before. We must be sure to vote. And we must peacefully do the tasks of manning picket lines at rallies, encouraging our family and friends to get involved, working the phones lines and canvassing precincts to elect conservatives, and more. In short, we must become heroes for the republic.

The cancer of progressivism didn’t start with Barack Obama and his corrupt Congress, but we can see to it that it ends with them. We must never forget the outrage we felt that Sunday in March when these people forced this legislative monstrosity upon us. Let that outrage spur your inner hero on.

Jeff Lukens is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. He can be contacted at www.jefflukens.com